Plauge Diary, In Which I Bake Too Much

[lydy]

Yes, I am making sour dough bread.  And, no, it's not what I want, yet.  My first one was a hockey puck.  I was almost not able to slice it, it was so tough.  The second one had a huge air bubble in the middle, was also very tough.  My third attempt, yesterday, had a good consistency, but is a little too sour for my taste.  So, work in progress.  I have also made cinnamon rolls, which were middling successful.  The enriched dough didn't really rise right,  and they were overbaked, and so both dry and tough.  Paul Hollywood would have had cruel things to say to me.  I made a very good apple pie, although the pie crust was a bit too tough.  Are we seeing a theme, here?  What I'm saying, good friends, is that quarantining is tough.

I do have a recipe for a french bread that has been successful every time, and I like it a lot.  It is a yeasted bread, though, and yeast is very hard to come by.  I have also used left-over sourdough starter for pancakes, fry bread, and muffins.  The first were excellent, the second quite nice, and the last acceptable, and need work.  In all three cases, I've added a bit of baking soda to the batter, which reduces the sour dramatically.  I also made eggs benedict the other day, and we had mimosas.  That was very nice.  (Hollandaise sauce is desperately easy, if you follow the instructions.)  Oh, and I've made two quiches that came out quite nicely, bar tough pie crust.  No, wait, I think that's three quiches, if memory serves.  Why, yes, I have been gaining weight, how nice of you to notice.

In other news, my sleep is absolute crap.  My body can't seem to decide what shift it wants to be on, and my routines are all a-hoo, so that doesn't help.  

I don't think I'm baking anything, today.  I think I am doing boring chores like cleaning the bathroom and the litter boxes. (It's crappers all the way down.)  I will say that Habitica has never been more vital to my well-being.  I said my routine are all a-hoo, but that's only partly true.  In point of fact, Habitica does keep me doing a number of important things in a timely fashion, so that's actually really great. 

How are all you all?  I miss you, all of you, even the ones I don't know IRL.  

Comments

[catherineldf]

We're capping off a two month stint that has included a car accident (me) and the death of my mother and a book release for Queen of Swords Press with major contracting work on the house because it's a. needed and b. our contractor had availability. But lordy, this is exhausting!

[thewayne]

You might check out John Kovalic's Twitter feed (link at dorktower.com). He's been having great success with sourdough after a lot of experimenting. Some things that I remember are: letting it rise for two days in the fridge, slitting the top with a razor, and using a greased cutting board to let it slide into a prepared dutch oven for the bake. Took him a lot of practice.

Take care, sweetie. That's all that you gotta do, aside from necessities like the litter box and food for yourself.

[lydy]

Condolences, congratulations, and so much sympathy. I hear napping is highly recommended.

[rushthatspeaks]

<3

[boxofdelights]

I seem to be doing okay as long as I spend several hours every day puttering around in the garden. I have to be careful not to attempt too much, because it is way too easy to hurt myself.

Dog is also very sustaining, because she needs exercise and she expresses so! much! joy!

[womzilla]

We continue to hang on. This will be, at a minimum, a 5-pants-days week, which is *way* above quota. It appears that "snap up all the available delivery/curbside pickup slots via website hacking" is a viable business model in these parts, which is just exhausting; there's another personal shopper/gig economy service I want to try before resigning myself to more in-person shopping expeditions, though.

One of our Big Boy rats developed noisy breathing on Tuesday but it appears to not be very serious. Our vet (whose enthusiasm for her charges is so delightful) put him on a new antibiotic, which he loves. A big dose twice a day is such a victory that I think I caught one of the other kids trying to figure out how to fake a sneeze.

[lydy]

Dogs really do joy, and it is lovely to behold. Cats have contentment down to a fine art, and I love a cat bonlessly asleep in my lap. Contact contentment.

[lydy]

I laughed out loud at the idea of a rat trying to fake a sneeze.

Sorry about the pants. You know that's not my preference.

[lydy]

I thought that letting it rise for longer made it more sour. When I let the dough rise for 16 hours, it had become slack and lifeless, and that's the two hockey-puck experiences. But, various bits show that rising in a warm environment also increases the sour. So, I dunno. Maybe a two day rise in the refrigerator would give enough rise that it wasn't tough as old boots, but also not as sour as the last attempt?

Turns out, baking is hard. Who knew?